Thin Ice

Chapter Eight

Cassie:

    I throw a red leather jacket on top of my outfit -a mini, denim skirt, and a white, baby tee- and slip on some white, heeled boots. I pick out some chunky, silver, hoop earrings, and a silver necklace and put them all on before fluffing my hair out and looking at myself in my bathroom mirror. I make a face at myself before plucking my lip gloss off the counter and smoothing some on.

    Tonight is the night of the party, and I've decided to wear something that will keep me somewhat warm, but adjustable because I know how hot houses can get with a bunch of bodies inside of them. I told Devin to pick me up from the rink because there is no way I'm going to let him pull up to my house for my mom and the entire rich neighborhood I live in to see. I've gotten my fair share of gossip at the cookouts my mom pulls me along to sometimes, and I never hear anything good about anybody. My mom is kind of a recluse, but if we never showed up to anything, she knows that people will gossip more about us than they already do. I think it really doesn't matter though. Let people think what they want, it doesn't really matter because they don't actually know us and they'll never try to. It's hard to gossip about someone you like to the whole neighborhood you're trying to fit in with.

    I pull on a strand of my hair before walking out of my bathroom and to my window. My window faces my front yard, so all I need to do is open the window, crawl across the roof, use the banister to slide down onto my front porch, and then run for my life. Yes, I'm wearing heeled boots, but I've done this too many times to count, and many of those times included stilettos.

    I silently open my window, and step onto the rough, black shingles of my roof. My heel slides for a second before catching purchase and I step my other foot out. Holding onto the opening of my window, I inch down my roof and towards the edge. A white dot marks where the banister is, and I find it quickly. I know my mom is in her room, so I don't even have to check before sitting down, swinging my legs over the edge, and finding the pole. I wrap my legs around it and let go, quickly dropping to the fence outlining my porch. I jump off of that onto the grass, and don't even wait to take a breath before I start to book it.

    Soon enough, I'm out of the circle of houses, and I can slow down to walk. I have enough time to get to the rink without jogging the whole way, and I'm going to take advantage of that. I don't want to show up at the rink sweaty and with my hair flat even though it's a little chilly. For a moment, I think about the fact that my mom won't come up to check that I'm still there because she doesn't care enough. I swear, she cares more about the sport that I do than the fact that I'm her daughter. And yet, she still finds the time to care about the fact that "I eat too much". She has some real issues, and she needs to figure them out.

    Driving from my house to the rink takes about five minutes, so walking isn't bad at all. It's around fifteen minutes when walking, so a lot of the time, my mom will have me walk to practice. I think it makes her more secure about the fact that I'm skinny.

    I pass by a gas station and look at the cars shining in the bright light. There are only two people filling up, one a white van, and the other a silver truck. I don't know much about cars at all, but I think it's fun to look at the cars parked here while I pass by. It gives me something to do. It also keeps me aware of my surroundings. One time, one of my neighbors was filling up, so when I spotted them, I had to go around the back way so they wouldn't see me and tell my mom. You can't trust anyone in my neighborhood.

After the gas station, there are a couple more neighborhood openings, a few fast food places that I frequent, and then there's open road for a stretch. I pass by everything, taking a moment to slow down when I pass by McDonald's to stare at the heavenly advertisements practically taunting me. When I reach the road, I know I'm getting close, so I pull out my phone and send a text to Devin to tell him I'm almost there.